What you get when you hire a Shopify expert
Hiring a Shopify expert in Dubai isn't the same as hiring a generalist web developer. A Shopify specialist knows Liquid (Shopify's templating language), understands the platform's checkout architecture, writes custom apps against the Admin API, and optimises for Shopify's specific ranking and conversion quirks.
At NKM Studio, we've spent years inside Shopify. We know which apps slow your store down. We know which checkout flows lose UAE buyers at the payment step. We know how to structure product metafields so your Google Shopping feed is clean. This is niche expertise — and it's what you pay for.
Who actually builds your store
Hooman Bakhtekian — founder of NKM Studio, with over a decade in e-commerce and retail technology. Day to day he leads e-commerce and software architecture for a UAE optical retail group, and he is the founder and architect of LensPath, a lens-customisation platform for optical retailers on Shopify. Connect on LinkedIn.
That combination matters: NKM builds are informed by actually operating a UAE Shopify business — inventory, ERP, payments, Arabic/English customers, Google Ads spend — not just delivering sites and walking away.
How this is different from hiring a freelancer or big agency
- Founder-led, not a marketplace listing. You work directly with the person building — no account managers, no junior handoff, no middleman taking 20%.
- We only work on Shopify. No WordPress, no Wix, no side quests. Full focus means faster execution and fewer surprises.
- We're based in Dubai. Same timezone, same holidays, same market context. Meet in person when it matters.
- We bring ads and SEO to the table. Most Shopify developers don't run Google Ads. We do. Our builds are shaped by what performs in paid search.
- We say no. If a client request will hurt revenue, we say so. Our job isn't to execute blindly — it's to ship stores that make money.
What our Shopify experts cover
Who we work with
We're best suited to UAE brands doing at least AED 50,000 per month in online revenue, or with strong offline presence ready to scale digital. If you're pre-revenue and need a quick build to test an idea, we're probably not the right fit — but our Shopify blog will point you in the right direction.
Selected work
Dubai Optical — Shopify rebuild, Google Ads, and CRO for one of Dubai's established optical retailers.
Opti-Vision.ae — End-to-end Shopify SEO and Google Ads management for optical products across Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
LensPath — A custom Shopify app: lens customisation and prescription flows for optical retailers, shipped in 2026. See lenspath.io.